Lost Or Found
by TalkingToTulips
Summary: Caroline Forbes is lost, she doesn't remember who she is, where she comes from and how she got here. All she knows is that three months ago, she began to dream of a man who saved her. Little does she know that deep in her brain is the final piece of a ninety year old mystery, and that soon she and her mysterious man will meet again in a more realistic and dangerous fashion.
1. Chapter 1

_She came for us. All of us._

Tonight in Caroline's dreams was the same one she'd been having for almost three months. The scene was the same as always, the 1920's. She knew not when, or where, or what, or who. She just knew it was the twenties from the bloodied white flapper dress she wore as she ran, and the way her hair was pinned. Caroline always seemed to be running in her dreams, she ran at human speed and never looked back from the club she'd been in as people began to run out, pandemonium. There was screaming, and the thick smell of blood was in the air but something told her body to keep running, not to look back. Something made her not look as she was carried out the room by a river of panicked people, all human. But she couldn't think about feeding her blood lust right, the smell of blood was nothing to her but a horrifying reminder of what was happening.

"Caroline, get out of here, we'll hold her off! Run, Caroline!" came a female shout from behind her. Caroline didn't even look back at the older female voice, not a motherly tone, but more of a sister's firm words. Even if she did turn around to see who this mysterious woman who always yelled at her to run away in these dreams, there would be too many people to determine who it was before the same voice screamed in agony, a blood curling cry of death. Seconds later, a man cried out in anger and pain, and the unmistakable sound of stake stabbing into flesh evaded Caroline's vampire hearing. Sometimes when she was awake, she would hear it in the distance and shudder at the sickening sound of flesh being torn apart to make way for the wooden murderer. In the memory, in that moment, Caroline knew what that sound meant, would let out a sob of mourning as she ran up some steps and further from the scene, but couldn't think it, couldn't fathom what was happening. Whoever the now dead vampire was, Caroline held her dear.

Who was that woman who had warned her off? Why she was more concerned that Caroline escaped with her life than her own? Her voice was so familiar to Caroline, and not just because Caroline had dreamed about it for weeks, months. It felt like a voice she once heard everyday, a voice that made her smile, but here, in this world, it just made her sob. The martyr's name was forever on the tip of Caroline's tongue, and she was beginning to fear that she would never know what was happening. She probably saved Caroline's life in this memory. If it was a memory. Caroline would never know, maybe this was all just a dream, that was what Stefan told her when she told him about these dreams. Damon would always roll his eyes but the moment he thought she wasn't looking look pensive and thoughtful about her detailed re-account of the dream, every single detail would be ingrained in her memory until the end of breakfast then it would vanish away in a fade like the last firework of a display. These dreams were random and infrequent, every few weeks. And she would wake in a sweat and a few tears would slip from her eyes at the misery these dreams give her.

The blonde's dream self was pushed, no shoved, to the floor by a desparate getaway man under the commotion of the party breakup and her nose collided with the marble floor in a smack. In a cliche, almost cartoon like moment, Caroline swore she saw stars. And as if she wasn't in enough pain, a bullet had hit Caroline's shoulder on the way down to the floor. It was wooden and soaked in vervain so she screamed loudly and twisted onto her back, clutching in agony at the wound and tears slipped from her eyes in broken sobs. She was broken physically now, not just mentally is the first thought that runs through her mind as she relives it. Something had snapped inside her and she gave up, whatever was chasing her could have her now. Blood was pouring from her broken nose and her shoulder was creating a puddle of blood on the floor. Caroline rolled onto her side so there was on pressure on the gaping bullet wound and just watched as people's feet rushed past her, making no motion to help her. One woman's heel even dug into the vampire's leg in the hurry to escape the massacre, another addition of pain. The smell of blood was becoming stronger every second, with every kill. She could hear the bodies hitting the floor, coupled with the occasional sound of a stake taking another victim. Whoever this is, they were taking no prisoners. Humans, vampires, there was no difference. She or He or Them or It wanted everyone they could get their hands on dead.

"Come on, love. Up you get. You need to get out of here now." came the voice that haunted her dreams, that haunted her waking hours. Caroline looked numbly at the hand extended to her, but not the face of the man who offered it. Caroline looked straight ahead and shook her head, determined and content to die here on the floor of a club that smelt of whiskey and blood. "Please don't give up, Caroline." He whispered gently, tentatively reaching behind her to pull the bullet from her shoulder and chuck it aside. Caroline sobbed brokenly at the pain but sighed in relief once the bullet was out, her hand finding the man's. The moment their fingers met, he clutched her hand and squeezed it tightly, letting her know she was safe. Just as Caroline's eyes darted up to meet the eyes of her hero, she woke up with a gasp. Her spine was bolt straight as she woke in bed, her skin cold as she covered one hand with her mouth and another ran her fingers through her hair.

She only gave herself a few seconds to breathe before she flashed over to her desk and began to write down..everything.

Every time this happened, Caroline would pull the leather bound book that Stefan had given her from her desk drawer and begin to scribble down everything she could remember from the dream. She had compiled an encyclopedia of information on the setting, people, sounds, smells, colours. Caroline had sketched the hand stretched out to her perfectly as if it would come to life and take her away. She sat at her desk for hours, until the sun was up in the sky and one or both of the Salvatores was awake. Today, a glass of blood was placed on the desk next to her to break her concentration as she sketched the dress she had been wearing during the scene. Caroline didn't stop writing for a good few seconds after it was given to her. The person who had offered it sighed angrily and knocked the wood to divert her attention, Caroline looked up. "Thanks, Damon." She rolled her eyes and took the glass, swallowing a bit gulp of the thick, red liquid before setting it back down. The black haired Salvatore watched as she quickly returned to scribbling.

"Writing in your dream journal again?" He guessed, trying to read upside. Caroline nodded and continued to write, the pen scrambling to get the words on the page for the blonde vampire. Damon picked the glass of blood up and began to sip at Caroline's breakfast himself, even though the blonde voiced her opinions on him drinking her blood. He just rolled his eyes and licked around the rim of the glass. Caroline scoffed in disgust and ducked her head back to the page of her book she was trying to find. The one that centered around her rescuer. "You know what Stefan says about these dreams? That they're just dreams and you shouldn't obsess some guy that doesn't exist because he was nice to you."

"I don't remember anything from before 1927, Damon, I don't even know how old I am. The absolute first thing I remember is being on the boat and Stefan meeting me at the port, saying that he was there for me. I didn't even remember my last name, who's to say that this isn't a memory that's trying to break through?" Caroline gritted her teeth after Damon's reprimand. She had lived with the Salvatores since that day in 1927, traveling with them across America. Stefan was the first person who'd known who she was when the boat had finally docked in New York, and had taken her to his apartment in Manhattan where Damon was sucking a redhead dry whilst listening to jazz music and drinking prohibited gin. Neither of them told her how they knew where she'd be, what had happened to the poor blonde or where she'd come from. They'd just taken her in to their fold without question or worry about her past and cared for her for the last ninety years, she was practically the sister they'd never had to the pair now.

Damon took this argument and shrugged his shoulder, a little more partial to the argument than Stefan, who insisted that the dreams were only the fantasies of a lost girl who wanted to know who she was. "In my opinion, he's just scared that you'll remember who you are and leave us." He chuckled darkly as he finished off the glass and handed Caroline a full blood bag to compensate for the drink he'd stolen.

"Stefan worries too much. He treats me like I'm a baby vampire, I could be hundreds of years old for all he knows." Damon sat in another chair and looked thoughtful at the idea that Caroline, the eternal youth, could be over the ninety years that he had known her. Of course, they suspected she was older than the both of them, her strength outweighed Damon's three fold and her control over her blood lust made Stefan's seventy years on the bunny diet look like a week on a weight watcher's diet. There was no way of knowing. She sighed, put down her pen, slid the journal into her desk and bit into the blood bag, sucking it dry like the vampire she was. She couldn't remember being human, she couldn't remember being turned, she couldn't remember anything, she'd woken in 1927 with a completely blank slate and only her first name. They had given her Forbes as a last name as she hadn't wanted to take Salvatore, Damon claimed they were naming her after the magazine but Caroline had always thought it fit too well to be a coincidence. Either way, her passport and ID card had read Caroline Forbes for the last ninety years.

But she still had no idea who that was.

The blonde finished the blood bag, and threw it in the nearest trash can. She fell back in her chair and spun around once, giving off her patented 'get out of my room' vibe. She didn't ever need to tell the brothers to leave her alone; she just gave off an energy that made them want to get out before she threatened to rip their heads off. Caroline was rarely a creature of solitude so they respected her need for privacy with great care, because if she wanted to be left alone, there was little that could be done to convince her otherwise. Thankfully, Damon took the hint when he felt the vibe and quickly left the room and the girl in peace, spinning around in her office chair. Caroline listened as Damon's footsteps disappeared somewhere into the house, shouting a condescending reminder for her that she couldn't be late for school. She also heard him bang a knock onto Stefan's bedroom to wake the younger of the two brothers up, echoing the same reminder in a daisy sweet voice, as if he didn't believe they were both idiots.

The three of them had moved to the boarding house just after the death of Zach Salvatore, a car accident over the bridge going out of town. Damon had come to claim the 'inheritance' as the eldest living 'descendant' of Giuseppe Salvatore when the news finally reached them in Manhattan. The story in town went that the guardian had brought his brother and 'sister' with him, and they had agreed to stay a few years. As Caroline and Stefan passed for 17 at a minimum age, the pair had decided to attend the high school in Mystic Falls like would be expected of two teenagers moving into the area. It had been twenty years since they had been in school, and even then, it had been Oxford University during the 80's. Caroline liked immersing herself in the world outside the Boarding House doors. Damon's voice rang through the house once more, this time telling them not to forget their books.

"Bite me, Damon." Caroline shouted back through the door and pulled the journal out once more, flickering the picture she'd sketched of the hand. Running her fingers of the penciled palm, she could almost feel the mystery man squeeze her hand softly, like he always did the dream. No matter what Stefan said or Damon did, she would find out who this man was. He was real, and he saved her life. If anything, she had to thank him for what he did for her, she wanted to do it too. Maybe he knew who she was. Maybe he could help her remember.

It wasn't that she didn't love the Salvatores like brothers or that she was desperate to leave them like Damon speculated, it was she felt like something was missing in her life. If she was even ten years older than Damon Salvatore, she was still missing 60 long years of her life. A time where she might have had a lover, or family, a mother, sister, brother. What if they were still out there, looking for her? She can't have just fallen from the sky onto that steam liner from the heavens. Despite her blonde, innocent curls and her face, she was the exact opposite of angel. That's what Damon said, anyways. She supposed it was a compliment of sorts; after all, she had done awful things in the ninety years she remembered. Maybe she committed done more horrific acts before then. She didn't know a single detail pre-1927 and it drove her to distraction some days.

"Damon says you had the dream again." came Stefan's voice from the doorway; Caroline looked up and snapped the journal shut before he could pry into her head like his older brother had. Slipping it into her desk drawer and locking it this time so that Damon couldn't read the latest additions to her archive once she was at school, Caroline flashed over to her walk in wardrobe and hid the key in its usual spot, a jewelry box. As she did so, the light caught the diamonds of a particular bracelet, the one she'd been wearing when she woke on the boat. She didn't recall wearing it in the dream, but it was a connection to her past that served as a reminder that she had one. She had exiled the bracelet to her trinkets box many years ago after she'd spent a year trying to find someone who had an idea who she was. The urge to discover her past hadn't been as strong as it had then until the dream began to haunt her. "Caroline? Earth to Caroline, come in Caroline." Stefan's voice brought her back to the present and reality.

Caroline turned to her pseudo-sibling and smiled casually in response to his comment, beginning to rifle through her closet for an outfit for the day. She'd naturally taken the room with the most storage space, as the Salvatores and her had spent the last ten years in New York, and she'd been to many a fashion show during that time. "I did. It was the same as usual." Caroline explained as she inspected a pale blue tea dress. She could feel Stefan's disapproving look on the side of her head, and avoided his eyes as she moved around the room to organize herself for the day, wearing only a rumpled night slip and her hair dull around her face. A couple minutes went by in this fashion before Caroline spoke up again. "What? No lecture on losing myself in fantasy?" She asked incredulously as she turned on her curlers, Stefan still leaning in the doorway.

"If you plan on lecturing her, can you wait until I've finished?" Damon interrupted, walking into the room and sliding past Stefan. He had an envelope in his hands, thick and conspicuous. Caroline was spritzing her hair with a heat defense spray when she lay eyes on the thing, and took it from the brother. Her name was written in calligraphy, not her last name. Just Caroline. Fully, it read Caroline and the men of the Boarding House, which implied it was addressed to all of them, but it felt like it was meant for her. Such a personal thing not to use her full, legal name. "I found that on the door step." He explained. Stefan entered the room to watch as Caroline opened it up, a seal keeping it closed and begin to read it silently to herself.

"It's an invitation for all three of us to a ball for tomorrow at the manor. Someone must have finally bought it from the Gilbert family, they've been fixing it up and wanting to sell it long enough..." She told the boys, recalling the mansion that sat on the edge of town, the most lavish lodgings next to Lockwood Mansion and the Boarding House, if one didn't count what remained of the Salvatore Manor. According to Carol Lockwood's incessant whining, The Manor had fallen in what she called disrepair once the Gilbert family had moved into a reasonable sized house closer to the town 70 years ago and had been left without the constant care and attention it needed. Construction had begun just before Caroline had arrived, but apart from that, it had been abandoned and empty of inhabitants for a long time. This ball would be the first breath of life into the halls for years.

"Please join us for cocktails and dancing tomorrow evening at seven. A dress code of formal attire is expected and a car will be sent to pick you up at half past six." Caroline quoted clearly for the boys' sake, hating when people tried to read over her shoulder. The words were in the same calligraphy as the names on the front and the lack of postage stamp or address implied that it had been hand delivered to the porch. Caroline didn't recall hearing anyone beside the three of them on the grounds today, but she had been distracted. It was perfectly plausible that someone had placed it there.

"Who's 'us'?" Stefan asked hesitantly.

"I don't know." Caroline answered, before turning it over. There was a message on the back written in cursive yet masculine font that suggested an education and decorum in whoever had written it. Damon had already lost interest in the subject and sauntered out the room, but decided to announce he would be attending as he did. Stefan lingered, seeing as Caroline had found something. When she noticed his eyes on her, she hid the invitation behind her back. He asked what it said. "None of your business, now go on, school starts at nine and I have a million things to do." She replied, ushering him out so she could change, do her makeup and prepare for the school day. Once the door was locked behind him, she pulled the thick card to her line of sight once more. Caroline read the little note once more, and decided that she would definitely be joining Damon at this ball.

_Feel like you're missing something?_

_Fondly, Anonymous_


	2. Chapter 2

**Gah! Sorry, I took so long. NaNoWriMo, life and my university applications got in the way, but I'm back now!**

**Thank you all for showing an interest in the story and this chapter is only short, but it leads up to a big chapter which will feature Mr. Mikealson and the mysterious ball! Hope you enjoy this chapter, please read and review! Gracias! **

* * *

Stefan had offered to drive Caroline to the high school, and she gladly accepted the ride from her pseudo sibling. She didn't feel like she could drive in the state she was in since reading the note on the back of the invitation. It had left her in some sort of dazed state of numb shock for the first few minutes that had only just began to fade away, dormant in the back of her mind. Whoever this anonymous person was, they knew something and Caroline would find them. It made her feel dizzy at the very idea of someone who might know about her life before the Salvatores adopted her into their family. If you could call it that. The word The three of them had come across many a vampire in their travels such as Lexi and Rose, old acquaintances of the brothers. They, among others, most often used the word coven to describe Caroline and the brothers but that always seemed too Gothic a description of the trio.

By the time Caroline was prepared and headed down the stairs from her room in the attic, Damon had disappeared off the grounds as he usually had by the time she was finished getting ready for school and Stefan was sitting in the main parlor that the front door opened into, twiddling the keys to one of their many cars in his hand. Caroline wandered in, checking she had all her books and her purse for school lunch before looking up at Stefan.

"Ready to go then? The school bell waits for no one, Stefan." She asked him cheerily.

There was a moment of silent tension between the two of them where Stefan looked like he wanted to say something to the blonde, but it was gone before Caroline could comment on it and he was out of his chair. The house had been silent and tense since the invitation had arrived, like the card had acted as some sort of catalyst for awkward, unanswered questions. Stefan knew she was hiding something, Caroline suspected the same of him and Damon just liked to make people feel uncomfortable, even those he considered family. She smiled warmly and followed him out to the car that sat in the driveway. She threw her bag into the foot well and slipped into the silver car, rolling her eyes at the fact that Stefan's iPod already connected to the speakers. The moment he twisted the keys in the ignition, it began blurting some indie band that Caroline had never heard before. She made sure he didn't see the face she pulled as a debate on their conflicting music tastes would most probably take up the rest of the car journey and a couple days if they were lucky.

"So, are you going to tell me what was on the back of the invitation?" He asked curiously as they began out of the Boarding House drive, Caroline looked over and shook her head with a sugary sweet smile.

"Can't a girl have one secret?" Caroline replied sweetly before turning to look out the window with a roll of the eyes. She was tired of his attitude to her secrecy already . Nobody was going to get hurt because she wanted to keep a secret between them. Stefan nodded in response and turned into the main town towards the school, passing other students who chose to walk to the school every morning. Caroline was starting to think that if it got her out of conversations like this one; it might be worth it to walk from the Boarding House. With the question still hanging unanswered in the air, the pair remained stoic and quiet until they reached the school. Stefan pulled into a parking space and Caroline was out of the car before the car could even grind to a halt, calling a thanks to Stefan and promising to see him back here to carpool home. Desperate to be away from her interrogation, she swung the bag over her shoulder and rushed over to where Bonnie was standing with Matt.

Too occupied by her social life, Caroline didn't even notice the man sitting on a bench under a tree mere metres away from Stefan's chosen parking space, a man who stuck out obscenely in the typical high school scene of students snatching away at their vanishing time to socialize before class began. He would never pass for a high school student, yet he was too young in looks to be a qualified teacher. Not that he cared about what others perceived of him. Many of the students didn't even pay attention to the intruder on the grounds as he leaned forward when the blonde emerged from the car he'd pegged as her mode of transport for the day. Stefan Salvatore's presence in the driver's seat only confirmed that she was the only he was waiting for.

When she became visible before him, his breath left his lungs for a few seconds at how she looked exactly how he remembered her in his memories, even after all this time. He'd known that she would look exactly alike in body, beautiful, slender and unusual in her physical qualities, but he hadn't expected her sparky fire cracker like essence that lived in her every movement and word, the part of her that had haunted him most for all these years to still be burning brightly after years of clouded memories and forced into this life without even knowing it. His advanced hearing picked up her conversation about math's homework with the quarter back and he smirked at how well she blended into the teenage world, groaning about how she'd forgotten to do one of the problems set for her class. His eyes remained on the girl, drinking in every detail of the woman as she remained ignorant of his appearance in her life. She wouldn't even care, wouldn't recognize him if he stood before her.

Whilst Caroline hadn't clocked the newcomer watching her until the bell screeched at the students to get themselves to class and she started into the school with her friends, Stefan most certainly did. He hovered by the car, and his eyes flickered to meet the hybrid's. In that moment, Stefan knew what was happening and it all made perfect sense. The invitation, the note, the dreams. He couldn't confront the man here, but Stefan made sure that the lurker noticed him and his protective look over the blonde before he abandoned his stance by the car and disappeared into the school himself.

* * *

It was waiting for her when she got home from school with Stefan. The box.

Her school day had gone as expected, everyone was gossiping about the invitations that had appeared on numerous doorsteps. Mostly addressed to the students' parents, anyone important in the town council or in general. Some people had gotten their parents to agree to them being plus one but Caroline kept it a complete secret that she and Stefan would be attending with Damon. Nobody had asked her, she liked that. She hated nosy people. Bonnie had not warranted an invitation and neither had Matt. Tyler's father and mother had of course been invited and Tyler was attempting to get himself invited, to welcome the newcomers to Mystic Falls. That was the weird part, nobody knew who was throwing the party. No name, no identity, no hints, completely under wraps. Nobody had seen anyone go into the manor except builders for ages.

"What's that? Did you order something?" Stefan asked curiously as Caroline tapped the box with the toe of her boots, just to check it wasn't explosive. It was a lovely looking package, with a white ribbon on top. There was no note except for the piece of paper that said Caroline. Again, just her name. No surname. She shared a look with Stefan and shrugged at his question before picking the box up. He opened the door for the both of them, as Caroline's hands were full. Damon was not in, probably causing mischief somewhere in town or drinking at the grill. Caroline stumbled through the door and put the quite light but large box on the nearest flat surface. She didn't know what was in here but she had a pretty good idea what it was about.

Her breath caught in her throat when she finally lifted the lid to reveal a beautiful, very expensive looking blue dress. It was decorated artistically with what could only be diamonds which speckled the bodice and stomach area. Caroline slowly lifted the dress out of the box to examine it in full, slightly in awe of the piece of fashion. The fabric of the skirt was light and seemed to be three different colours depending on the light and would fit her body type beautifully. Her signature colour was usually red at any event and she'd been planning to wear one of her numerous items of couture to the event, but now she'd laid eyes on this dress, no other would do. Stefan whistled lowly and looked in the box, he pulled out a set of white gloves and another envelope, again with her name on the front. Caroline replaced the dress carefully in the box and snatched the items from him. He automatically put his hands up in surrender. "I don't read your mail." She grumbled, putting the gloves and letter in the box and sealing it again.

"This isn't exactly mail. If someone's trying to woo you, it's my duty as your sort of brother to protect you." He commented with a smirk though it was evident from his face that that wasn't all of it. Caroline rolled her eyes and walked over to the bottle of scotch they kept on the end table, seeing as the three vampires couldn't seem to co-exist without one of them having a scotch in hand. Whatever stopped them from tearing each other's heads off, Caroline thought to herself as she poured them both a finger of the liquid. She handed Stefan his and tried to read what was going on with him. Both of them seemed to know that the other was hiding something, but neither of them wanted to face the possible conflict of bringing it up. So they both remained awkwardly silent and for one, wishing that Damon would turn up and do something inappropriate. "Can't have people thinking I'm a bad brother?"

"I'm sure I'll be fine, Stefan, no people wooing me here." Caroline necked back her drink, replaced the glass where it sat with Damon's empty one before starting off to her room with the box in her arms. Glad to have some privacy at last. She pushed the box into her duvet and went to her vanity to grab a hairtie so she could pull her hair into a ponytail for the remainder of the evening. With a ton of homework and preparations for the ball to get done, Caroline couldn't be asked to look perfect tonight if she was going to be the belle of the ball tomorrow. She pulled the dress out once more and put it on a hanger, it hung at the front of her walk-in proudly after she examined the fabric and straightened the skirt. She had every faith that it would fit her as well as the gloves she'd been supplied with, which earmarked the event as high, prestigious and classical. Caroline wondered absentmindedly whether in her cloudy and checkered past, she'd ever attended any balls. In the ages before her memory was lost, balls had been the cultural norm but she didn't remember any, as was the way with anything pre-1927. The thought was certainly appealing. She loved balls when they were thrown; the people, the fashion, the food and drink, the dancing with handsome partners. She never said no to a party, anyways, but a ball was the cherry on top of the cake.

The thought of dance partners brought her back to the box. It had suddenly reminded her of the envelope Stefan had extracted from the box downstairs. She could hear Stefan's indie music from here, he was in his room. Probably zooming through that homework before Damon returned and teased him about staying in education. Damon was still not back yet, he was probably out with his latest dish. Either way, Caroline was certain that she wouldn't be disturbed as she opened the pristine envelope.

It was made of the same shade and type of the material the invitation had been and the calligraphy on the front was the same as the previous letter from the mysterious benefactor. Her name and only her given name in black letters. She was beginning to think that the writer either meant something by not using the Forbes name, or just didn't know her last name for certain when he wrote the note. Which would strange, seeing as he seemed to be showing enough interest in her to buy her a fancy dress, in her size. The handwriting on the letter itself was familiar and Caroline automatically went to find the invitation to prove her automatic hunch that the note on the back and this letter were definitely from the same person. She was right, of course and she hadn't even read the letter in full. Maybe this time she would get a name or any sort of hint as to who was sending her this cryptic messages.

Turns out it was not to be. All she got was a suggestion and a promise. As well as a lot more questions.

_Dear Caroline, _

_I hope you like the dress and might I suggest your diamond bracelet with the gloves? _

_See you tomorrow at the ball._

_- Anonymous_


	3. Chapter 3

The next evening, just as the invitation specified, a town car arrived at the Salvatore Boarding House at precisely half past six. The Salvatore men were standing aimlessly in their tuxedos waiting for Caroline to emerge from her room. Damon was swirling a scotch in his glass and Stefan was contemplating telling his brother what he'd seen the day before. It would be nearly impossible to do whilst Caroline was in the house and able to hear everything that came out their mouths, but once they were in the crowds of the party, it would be harder for anyone to untangle the strings of conversation. Damon needed to know, but would he be reliable enough not to do something stupid? That was the worry Stefan had. Damon was protective over their adopted sister and friend, as much as he would die for Stefan. He wouldn't take kindly to the information his younger brother had acquired through his observations, Stefan decided as Damon finished off the whiskey and put the glass aside to remain empty for the night. Or at least until he came home.

His musing was interrupted by Caroline's heeled footsteps coming down the stairs with the grace of a princess and the agility of a vampire. The boys turned to see her coming past the balcony in the blue dress her suitor had left. Her hair was up with tendrils of her blonde curls wrapped around her perfectly made up face with a locket around her neck that the brothers had gifted to her. It was a Salvatore heirloom and they were the only woman they trusted with something so precious and intimate. By wearing it, she announced her loyalty to their little coven; she made herself as much a Salvatore as Damon and Stefan. The white gloves were pulled over her arms and her diamond bracelet she'd collected from her forgotten years wrapped around her delicate little wrists and her daylight ring was under the glove. Caroline knew it was hideous when women wore rings over their gloves even though these gloves fit her flesh like a second skin.

She began down the stairs and tugged a blue, thick wrap around her shoulder, the fabric perfectly matching the dress. Caroline smiled at the boys, who nodded their approval as she collected her clutch and they began out to the car. Damon opened the door for the lady and she ducked into the car, feeling a little like she was under protection from the brothers as they were acting more like her body guards than her brothers. The driver greeted them and asked for them to show their invitation after they were all sat in the car, for security reasons. The blonde presented the card addressed to Caroline and the men of the boarding house to the well-dressed man at the wheel. He examined it, not reading the back to Caroline's delight, and put it beside him on the front seat. Obviously the party was some sort of treasure and the invitation was the key.

The car pulled away and began on their journey to the old Gilbert house. Miranda and Grayson Gilbert had moved away with their only child, Jeremy many months ago so that Jeremy could go to a private school and Grayson might get a better job. Nobody had heard from them since but the mansion left to Grayson in his father's will was an old estate commonly known as the Gilbert manor even though the Gilbert family hadn't built it. They had acquired it from a Mr. Mikealson who had built the house in the early 1900's. Legend said the man had died in the war and bequeathed it to the current heir of the Gilbert line, as they had admired the building for some years. Caroline could see why as they pulled up to the house, which was aglow with lanterns and lights, fully repaired of ageing damage with the fountain working in the center of the drive. It was a complete vision and anyone who lived there was a very lucky person, that was the only things a person looking on the place could say.

Once again with the body guard attitude, Damon opened the door and slid out effortlessly, thanking the driver as he went. His eyes darted around the place as he began lingering as a cover whilst Stefan helped Caroline out of the car. She rolled her eyes this time and slid past Damon before either of them could say another word. "Come on, you guys. I hardly doubt that anyone would want to kill me here. You worry way too much; you're going to get wrinkles." She told them in a chiding, hushed tone but smiling as she did. Damon and Stefan shared a look that inferred that they doubted it but they didn't voice their opinions to the blonde. Caroline smiled and looked up at the house once more, in awe of the place. "Just try and have a good time, and I'll shout the moment that someone tries to attack me with a cocktail sausage, agreed?" She bartered with them, obviously not convinced.

"Be careful what you wish for," sang Damon lightly before smirking at Caroline and beginning into the party with ease. The two left standing watched as he took the first champagne flute offered to him and began small talking Mayor Lockwood. Stefan lingered for a while but it took a short burst of Caroline's 'leave me alone' energy to make him depart as well. The blonde was sure that they would both be watching her all night, but no matter, she was alone and now she had to find the person that had sent her the note and the dress. It had been gnawing at her stomach for almost a day now and she definitely couldn't wait much longer, she might practically burst if she did. Putting her espionage cap on, she straightened out her skirt and began towards the make shift cloak room she'd been directed to by the driver so she could dispose of her wrap and clutch for the evening and get to work. She had plenty of questions that she wanted answered and her patience was wearing thin.

* * *

"What do you mean you saw him outside the school?" Damon snapped at Stefan as the younger brother tried to finish his recount of the incident the day before. An account that depicted an brief encounter with one of the Salvatore lesser favoured comrades in vampirism. His eyes were staring into his guilty brother's as he held an almost empty champagne glass in his hand, the other tucked away in his trouser pocket. "So, brother, please tell that the reason you've waited until this moment to tell me about this was because of memory impairment. Or did you think that this isn't important enough to share until after we've walked Caroline straight into the wolf's lair?" He asked with his usual sarcastic bluntness. Stefan rolled his eyes as Damon finished the flute like a stressed businessman who'd just clocked off and exchanged it for the first full one he could pluck off a passing waiter's tray.

"We don't know that he's here." Stefan reasoned, looking around the room of mostly humans but they could both sense a couple of supernaturals around the place. Damon took this chance to roll his eyes, which made Stefan turn to Damon with a questioning look. "Do you see him anywhere? What about any of the others?" The question was rhetorical as they could both clearly tell everything the other could see.

"Stefan, have you not learnt anything from the last ninety years?...it's Caroline. Of course he's here. It all makes perfect sense now." was Damon's unwanted response as he polished off this glass of Dom as well. He deposited the thin, spindly little glass on the nearest table and straightened his jacket. He looked into space as he fine-tuned his hearing for Caroline's voice like a shortwave radio attempting to pick up a certain frequency. Finally, he found her laughter and voice in a side room where she was talking with some of the high school students permitted to come to the party, playing her role as a human as always. Once confident of Caroline's locale, Damon looked back up at his brother. "I'm going to find her and stick to her like glue for the rest of the night. Seeing as she's here, there's no way we can get her out without her being suspicious and there's no way that he's not getting anywhere near her if I have anything to say about it." He decided, before beginning off without letting Stefan reply.

Damon wove in and out of the crowd and towards a corridor that would lead him to where his pseudo sibling was, his eyes scanning every way as he did. This news was not what he needed right now, not when Caroline was so confused and upset by these dreams. It was hard enough dealing with that, but if Caroline found out her so-called family were keeping secrets from her too, about the thing she wanted to know most of all, she would probably never speak to either of them again for the rest of her life. Being a vampire of undetermined age, that may be a long time. Just as he approached the room he was sure that Caroline could be found, someone tapped his shoulder. Damon almost wanted to shrug it off and not let this interruption break his concentration on protecting Caroline, but after a few moments he sighed and asked what they wanted without even turning around. "I couldn't help but hear your little speech about protecting your sister, it was very moving. But whilst you have one thing to say on this matter, I have a counter proposal." The familiar voice, and English accent, echoed through the corridors with sarcasm that rivaled Damon's.

The Salvatore brother placed the voice and turned around to see the mystery, suited man with a smirk on his face. "You?" He asked in disbelief.

The man's smirk widened further. "Me."

* * *

Caroline had yet to find the host of this mysterious gathering of the town's most important, but it seemed that everyone else at the party was just as clueless and wanton for important as her. She'd been small talking people since she arrived and nobody knew who had invited them, even the wait staff were clueless as far as names. A little while after she arrived, Caroline decided to give up looking and wait for them, him or her to find her. They'd done it before with the invitation and dress so she stuck out to them, and it wouldn't be that far if they really wanted to find her. So she grabbed some champagne and started up a conversation with one of the council members, an expert of the repair and renovation committee. Therefore, he had plenty of tidbits on the manor itself, as he'd been pressing the Gilberts to get the place checked over or sell it for years now. After a while, the topic turned to its origins and the original owners, before the Gilberts inherited it and made it their own for the most of the 20th century.

"Who built the house then? It's wonderfully designed." Caroline asked curiously as she and the man left the room, her eyes just spotting Damon talking to another gentleman with his back turned. She looked her friend over then dismissed his expression of anger, Damon wouldn't make a scene in such a public place, she hoped. The evidence spoke differently. She wondered for a second why Damon was mad, maybe the gentleman was speaking to him about something or he was just in a bad mood over something trivial. Too busy in her thoughts, she almost missed her companions' lecture. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" She asked politely, bringing her champagne to her lips as the pair crossed into the boundaries of the ballroom. Nobody was dancing right now, but a string quartet was playing in the background. The elder, balding gentleman began to speak when another voice interrupted him. Caroline turned to the source of the new voice with surprise, most wouldn't barge in on a conversation in such a civilized setting.

"He was saying that the architect was originally a Parisian who started the design in 1896 and finished it in the 1900's when construction began, but he needs to check his facts because the original architect was in fact the original owner, Nicholas Mikealson. My great grandfather." Caroline took in this new historian with raised eyebrows. He was taller than her, wearing a tuxedo as was the dress code but his tie was white and not black like the other men present. His hair was a dishwater blonde that looked brown from some angles and at the moment was slicked back with the right amount of product, he was much younger in looks than the man Caroline had been talking with. Caroline could tell instantly just from a look at him that he was a vampire like her, her senses were much finer than they had been when she'd first met Stefan and Damon in 1927. The council member stammered slightly to try and rebut.

The man continued on just as effortlessly as he had before, commanding the conversation like an emperor. "If you'd like some proof, I can find the original blueprints for the building and you can check the signatures but I can assure you that my family oversaw every detail of this house's creation, right down to the colour of the tiles, and it's finally back in the right hands." He smirked with a nod. Then the man regarded Caroline with softer, appraising eyes. "Now, if you wouldn't mind, sir, I'd love a word with Caroline here." With that closing statement and rhetorical request, the mystery gentleman had dismissed the other man with a few simple words. Caroline watched, expecting the council member to push back and assert his dominance because that was the way of a council member. You just can't give some people power, it does things to them. But the elder gentleman just nodded his respects and walked off.

Caroline raised one eyebrow at the man's control over even the most influential members of the community. She was sure that he hadn't compelled the man away, it had just been his words and voice, which was heavily tinted with a English accent that did not connote a rich Virginian family history. "Mr. Mikealson, I presume?" She asked. The sir smirked confidently and took her hand from her side to press a kiss against the back of her gloved hand. His eyes glanced over the diamond bracelet on her wrist and then he looked up at the blonde for a second. She watched him carefully with a cautionary glare as he straightened up and began to speak in his velvet smooth voice again.

"Please call me Klaus."

"Okay...Klaus." Caroline mulled the name over on her tongue, making sure that she had pronounced it right before continuing. "Seeing as you know my name, I assume that you know a bit more about me." She said in a forward tone, not wanting to go with the chit chat and foreplay to information. Nearly ninety years was one long session of chit chat and she was ready for the main event. The vampire arched an eyebrow at her voice and words, before nodding once. "Then...I have a few questions for you." She replied.

Klaus looked around him at the crowded ballroom, all full of human witnesses and people who were more than willing to pry for gossip. Not the most ideal place to interrogate another vampire for information on your missing past. Caroline swallowed thickly but straightened her back and neck proudly as she scanned around the room and looked back to Klaus. He raised his eyebrows and offered his arm. "Ask away but perhaps, here is not the place to discuss such matters, Caroline. I'm sure the guests can do without you and I for a few minutes whilst we talk down the hall." He decided. She nodded and let him escort her to the mystery location in the house she'd barely looked around, hoping that he had more than a few minutes' information.


	4. Chapter 4

**Happy New Year to all! I hope everyone enjoyed their winter break and is looking forward to going back to work or school if you haven't done so already! I hope everyone had a nice Christmas and is ready for a fresh year of writing and reading! Here's the new chapter, and it gives some glimpses into why Klaus is in Caroline's life now. **

**Remember to leave a review as I saw a dip between the second and third chapter, which always makes me sad! So read and review with your thoughts, theories and comments! I love to know what you think!**

* * *

Caroline wrapped her gloved hand lightly around Klaus' bicep through the layers of his tuxedo as they wove in and out of the ocean of people towards the hallways that led off from the main ballroom, Klaus waving off staff and party goers who wanted his attention. The moment they had got the message and left his line of vision, they no longer existed to the man. Caroline watched him as he looked ahead, clearly leading them to a certain place in the house. She did not know the house like he obviously did so she let him guide her, because the sooner he did and the more agreeable she was, the quicker she could get the information rolling around in his brain. She didn't even question him when he led her up the winding staircase that led to the upper levels, though she could feel people's eyes on her as she ascended.

They crossed into a corridor that was all marble and devoid of people, but not yet private enough for Klaus' liking. Caroline's heels clipped impatiently against the floor as he led her down the hallway. There were about four doors either side of the corridor and big French double doors that led to a rather large and marvelous looking balcony that looked down on the front courtyard of the house where people were still arriving in few numbers. The ball was in full swing and waltz music was playing in the background as Klaus pushed the door open and gestured for her to be first onto the balcony. Caroline nodded tentatively and began out, picking up her skirts to do so as there was a small flight of stairs down onto the granite this view, she felt like Juliet waiting for her Romeo, with the pure, clean, white lights wrapped around the metal safety railing and the tiger striped roses growing up from two long and wide marble pots on either side of the door up a trellis that was fastened to the side of the house.

"How did you get the roses to grow so quickly? The ones we have at the Boarding House need almost constant care and attention and they're not half as beautiful as these." She asked curiously, walking over and cupping one of the blooms that were her eye level. Tiger striped roses were a special breed of the rose, created by man with white and red roses. Caroline had admired them for many years and hoped to some day have some of her own, as the ones at the Salvatores' house were just plain red. They held true to their name, looking like tigers with the white splashed against the deep red base. They were beautifully cared for and in full show, proudly displaying themselves for this evening's guests even though she felt like she was the only one who would be this close to one and that was a shame. At the same time, she liked having the secret of the beautiful roses to herself. Klaus put his hands in his pockets and watched her as she continued to look at the bush that had already grown higher than the door with the help of the trellis to keep it flat and vertical. "I love this breed. Before I could never decide whether I loved white or red roses better, and now I don't have to." She explained.

"I find them rather fascinating. These are brought from my old house in Carolina because I couldn't bear to part with them and give them away to an owner that might give them the right care and detail. They seemed to be perking up quite nicely after the journey." Klaus admitted as he came to stand beside her, Caroline could feel his eyes on her as she continued to admire the flowers under the soft glow of fairy lights. She loved roses, as cliché and used as they were. They were old classics and safe, everyone knew what it meant when someone gave you roses, and they felt like satin against your skin when cared for properly. His hand came over to brush the skin of the rosebud and Caroline smiled. His fingers then traveled to her face and brushed the curls she'd let hang either side of her face from her eyes just as they were beginning to irritate her. His fingers moved from her hair down her bare shoulders and flawlessly off her skin without her even noticing that they'd been there in the first place.

Caroline finally remembered what she come out here to do and turned her head from the roses to Klaus. His gaze was intoxicating and she couldn't help but feel sucked into his eyes. He kept her knowingly in his grips and Caroline could have sworn that she heard him begin to speak a soft couple of words, a command to be soothingly followed. She saw his lips move, she was sure of it but every time she began to ask herself what he'd actually said, she came up a blank. Her mind denied all knowledge of the event in question and Caroline lightly shook her head, finally no longer looking in Klaus' eyes. Of course, what she didn't know was that Klaus had compelled her in those few moments but had covered his tracks so not to spoil the rest of their night together.

And even if Caroline had known of the compelling, she would think it physically impossible for him to compel another vampire. She of course had had no idea who he was at the start of the evening, so there's no way she would know that he was one of the Original vampires with the ability to compel her into his will if he wanted to. Not that he would ever take away her will from her that was not the reason, he had compelled her in that moment. Klaus had needed her to do something for him but he couldn't ask it of her outright, hence the underhand tactics to ensure that his plan went forward without a hitch. "Did you say something?" Caroline asked him curiously, Klaus had found his entertainment in watching the roses once more, one eye on the beauty beside him that made the unusual flowers pale in comparison. Klaus couldn't help but think that if Caroline had been a flower, she would have been a tiger striped rose, not content being a normal red rose of passion or a crisp white rose of innocence. She would have to create something entirely new for herself.

"No, love, I was just admiring how beautiful you look this evening." He told her with an easy smile. Caroline nodded, smiling to herself at the compliment but still wondering what games her mind were playing on her but prompting shrugged it off. She turned and walked over to the edge of the balcony, clasping the side railing with both hands. Klaus joined her and put his hands in his pocket once more. "I believe you have some questions that want answering then, Caroline, love. I can't be much help but I'll do my best to answer any that you have." He promised. Caroline nodded and began to think about what to ask him first. What was the priority in her head? To know what happened in 1927? Or to know about her origins? How was she turned? Where was she born? Who turned her? Were they still alive now? If so, could she find them easily? How did he know her? Why had he written those notes to her? Had he intentions of helping her? All these questions bubbled to her lips and she ended up relenting to the first one to get there.

"How did you know about my bracelet? In your note, and don't deny that it was you sending me the notes; you suggested that I wear this. It's the only diamond piece I own so you must know it. How?" She asked him curiously, holding her wrist up to showcase the diamond bracelet. A few years ago, Stefan and Caroline had had a jeweler appraise the necklace and he'd determined that it was a beautiful and rare piece, being the highest quality diamond of the time period and from the late 1800's, so she might have had it from sometime before that night in 1927. Caroline shared the Breakfast At Tiffany's philosophy that diamonds were best suited for older women so refrained from buying anymore and spoiling the unique beauty and her liking for this one trinket. Klaus took her hand to better look at the bracelet and Caroline could see from the expression on his face that he'd seen this beautiful piece before. Caroline cocked one eyebrow and waited for an answer to her question.

"I know the bracelet; it's rather a stunning piece on you." He told her with an easy smile, obviously enjoying the chance to shower her with compliments whenever he had the chance. Caroline wouldn't have expected any less, after all, her outfit choice was the one he'd brought for her and she did feel like a princess standing in her blue ball gown. Caroline sensed there was more and waited patiently. "But other than that it lights up your smile, I sadly don't know anymore about that bracelet other than you clearly have only one diamond bracelet if you knew that I was referencing this particular one in my note and that it was given to you in the 1920's before you lost your memories." He told her. Caroline cocked an eyebrow at this new information, whilst disappointing, she was not going to give up so quickly. She still had questions, but something about what Klaus had just said stuck out.

"I never told you that I lost my memories. How did you even know that? Or did you know me before?" She pointed out suspiciously. Klaus swallowed thickly and nodded, he seemed to know that he had been caught. He looked from her face in almost embarrassment and over the grounds of the house, the cars had stopped arriving but there were still people milling around outside in the fresh air. There was laughter and drinking filtering from below them to create a quiet background noise for their conversation whilst their words exchanged remained completely between them, no prying ears or eyes able to reach them here in solitude. A brisk breeze blew over the grounds but neither of them flinched. Neither would have noticed had Caroline's curls not shifted with the air. "Well?" Caroline asked, furrowing her brow curiously.

"That's true; you didn't mention your memory loss. I thought that it was common knowledge that I knew already from my notes." Klaus explained.

"You didn't answer a lot of questions with those notes on the invitation or with the dress; in fact they did quite the opposite and brought up quite a lot of questions for you. That's why we are out here in the first place, I need answers to those questions. I need answers to many questions, and I know that you won't be able to answer all of them. I'm not asking for everything, I'm asking for something." She told him in a pleading but firm tone, laying down exactly what she wanted on the table with a sigh. Klaus nodded and she continued. "Ninety years without them has left me ready to know what my life was like before then, before I find myself too comfortable with not knowing. So, how did you know me before the-"

"Niklaus!" A sharp voice, also with a British accent, broke through Caroline's words like a hammer against glass as the double doors snapped open.

"What?" Klaus barked without looking over at the gentleman, almost gesturing for Caroline to continue with what she was asking but then realizing that the voice belonged to someone, he knew well enough to know his real name and feel unafraid in using it in front of him. His gaze was on Caroline until he could no longer ignore the man waiting patiently at the now open doors. Caroline had long since broken their eye contact and looked up to see a brown haired, similarly suited gentleman. Klaus recognized him and rolled his eyes visibly. "This better be good, Elijah. Caroline was speaking when you so rudely interrupted." He threatened lightly as Caroline blushed bright red, feeling bad.

"My apologizes, Miss Forbes, I didn't mean to interrupt you." Elijah apologized, ducking his head in a slight bow. Caroline smiled and waved it off; she could ask Klaus again later. Klaus himself rolled his eyes and asked him what was happening that Elijah needed to interrupt him. Caroline waited patiently and pulled her gloves further up her arm as the two spoke, knowing it was no longer her place to interrupt. "Kol and one of the Salvatore gentleman are butting heads in the ballroom and now they're threatening to tear each other apart in front of the party. The second brother is there now." Elijah began to explain; Caroline's head popped up at the mention of her pseudo brothers and furrowed her brow, asking Elijah where they were. "In the ballroom. I assume you know them?"

"Unfortunately. I swear you can't take Damon anywhere without him causing a scene." Caroline commented sounding like an aggravated mother with a disobedient child as she picked up her skirts and began back out into the house. Klaus watched after her with a saddened expression, but also of anger that their conversation had been interrupted by the Salvatores. Klaus knew there was a reason that he trusted the younger brother more than Damon. Elijah put his hand on the small of Caroline's back to help escort her inside and threw a look of apology to his brother that he torn the pair apart at such an important moment. Elijah knew how vital it was to Klaus that Caroline be here tonight, the family had been waiting for a long time for the opportunity to see the blonde once more and now it was here, the Salvatores had gotten in the way.

Klaus stayed outside as Elijah and Caroline went to defuse the situation between their respective family units, his eyes watching the blonde disappear down the halls with a determination that made him smile. Her heels clapped against the marble angrily, and she kept muttering to herself about tearing the brother apart for making a scene. He smirked to himself at the words that his hearing picked up and looked over at the tiger striped roses that she'd been admiring moments ago, then from the roses, his eyes wandered the outside of the house. Klaus could remember the days that he designed the manor in, under the guise of another name, Nicholas Mikaelson. It had been, as he told Caroline, in the late 1800's to the early 1900's, almost a full twenty years before Caroline lost her memories in 1927. Despite her amnesia, he remembered it perfectly.

_"I don't understand why you want to build a house in Virginia anyway, Nik. It's a dry and boring state with absolutely no use to us." Rebekah commented wryly as she poured herself a cup of tea; yet another comment insulting his work as an architect. Klaus rolled his eyes and continued with the work as he sat at his desk, surrounded by papers. He didn't really understand why Rebekah had decided to join him on this journey to America when she'd been perfectly content causing mischief in Europe with Kol. Despite her lady like decorum and her straight lace corsets that made her back impossibly straight, Rebekah was such a rapscallion at the best of times and Kol was no different. Klaus got terrified at the idea of leaving Rebekah in Europe with the rising grumblings in England about giving women the vote, because Rebekah would be kicking and screaming at those protests in a flash and the general state of the continent, Rebekah and Kol's were not needed to cause drama in those parts of the globe. "Not to mention it's in a little town that has no importance to anyone, ever__." Klaus wanted to point out that the town she was talking about was on the land that they spent their last days as human, so would be important to them. _

_"Hush, Rebekah. He's working." Caroline__ sighed at Rebekah's attitude and walked over to the desk, peering over his shoulder at his work. She admittedly didn't understand blueprints that finely but did her best to imagine what the finished product would have looked like. Caroline tilted her head slightly at the design as Klaus watched her, trying to gauge her reaction as the house began to take shape in her mind. Meanwhile in the background, Rebekah sipped her tea and read her latest letter from Kol about his time in Paris with Finn and Elijah, making little noises of jealously as she read about his fun. "If you're so miserable here in New York, then I'm sure there's a ship willing to take you back to France." Caroline threw the comment back over her shoulder as her fingers trailed the lines of a particular room in his design, tilting her head once more._

_"What do you think?" He asked her, ignoring his sister as she replied that she couldn't leave the pair of them alone, they would die of boredom with just their own company. Klaus rolled his eyes and watched Caroline purse her lips into a line._

_"You should put in a balcony just there." Caroline explained softly, pulling up another chair at vampire speed so she could explain her suggestions of an addition to Klaus' plans. She laid her delicate finger on the exact spot where the balcony should go and began to explain. "You could look out on the whole grounds and in the summer, it would be great for sitting in the sun. In the spring, there could be roses and flowers out there and you could see all the plants blooming out in the courtyard. And also, if you want to be all practical and manly about it rather than the casual uses of the balcony, that would be a great vantage point if you came under attack from an angry mob, you could easily drop burning oil on them as they crossed the threshold or shoot them with a crossbow." Her voice as she explained the last was joking and Klaus smiled at her humor. "Plus it would be private enough to have conversations without anyone listening in on you." She added, smiling meekly, still unsure that he would take to the idea._

_Klaus smiled and thought it over. "I think you're right, we could always do with a vantage point to shoot an angry mob with a crossbow." He agreed, watching Caroline's face light up with a grin when he spoke._

Standing on that exact same balcony that Caroline had suggested all those years ago, Klaus ducked his head for a moment. He could already hear Caroline scolding Damon downstairs and smirked to himself. He could also hear Kol being a smart arse about the situation, but he knew that Elijah would take care of the situation for him. Right now, Klaus would rather be lost in his memories of the people downstairs than with them.


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, hi, I'm back, this chapter would have come a lot sooner but my laptop crashed and took most of the chapter with it, as well as exams taking over. I'm going to try and post at least once a fortnight from now on and if I don't, I will punish myself on your behalves. Anyways, here's the newest chapter, hope you enjoy it and don't forget to review because they make me smile on rainy days and let me know that I'm not just wasting my time. **

**Onwards! **

* * *

Caroline didn't see Klaus again that night. She found Damon exchanging harsh words with Kol, Klaus and Elijah's younger brother, concerning an event from his past. Neither of them explained exactly what the event in question was so Caroline remained in the dark, not that she cared at this point why they were fighting as to the fact that they were fighting. The pair of them were behaving appallingly and Caroline didn't approve of such antics in public. Neither of them were more to blame about the argument, both were threatening physical harm on the other. The comments become so fiery that Elijah put himself between them and glared at his brother every now and then to remind him that they were in a very public setting. Any fight between the pair of them were have been more than revealing about their vampire natures and that was never a smart thing to do in front of a council with a set protocol on vampire infestations like this.

As much as Caroline hated being compared to a cockroach, it was the only word that could be applied to the increase in vampires over the last few days. She never figured out how many there were in the Mikaelson family or how many were vampires, but she knew that the three men she had met were their kind. The combined strength of Elijah the diplomat and Caroline the big sister archetype managed to resolve the fight before it came to blows. After which, Caroline knew that, for tonight, had missed her chance about the man she'd left on the balcony and fetched her wrap, deciding that she wanted to go home before people started interrogating her about the incident. Damon agreed that he could tell that he wasn't wanted anymore, despite Elijah telling him that they were more than welcome to stay. Stefan agreed with his brother, not seemingly as disapproving as Caroline but it was obvious to her that neither of the brothers wanted to be in the company of Kol Mikaelson anymore.

When she attempted to question them about why they seem to despise the younger Mikaelson they evaded answering all together. Damon just told her that he was a 'twerp' and Stefan offered the more revealing answer of 'they have a history', though she felt they were being more complex than needs be. Once they arrived home at the Boarding House, Caroline went straight to her room, not wanting to be disturbed for the rest of the night. The following day would be a Saturday so she planned to sleep until the late morning beford she demanded answers from Damon and Stefan. She quickly shed her necklace and bracelet, carefully putting them in her trinket box with her key, unpinning her hair as she did and discarding the bobby pins on her vanity table as she hummed to herself, one ear softly listening to the Salvatores drinking in the parlor of the house.

Caroline slipped down the zipper of her dress and let it fall to the floor, stepping out of it and instantly pulling on the shirt of her nightwear, just in case any prying eyes were watching. She doubted it but precautions were part of who she was. Why else would she hide the key to her desk drawer where not even those she trusted more than anything could find it? Caroline hung the dress up carefully, smoothing out the skirt. She almost wanted to apologize to the dress because she didn't give it the night out it deserved. Maybe another time, she thought to herself as she climbed into bed and switched off her side light. Tonight, she fell to sleep as if she was being hypnotized. And that was because she had been. Only she would call it being compelled.

_In this dream, Caroline was back in the 20's, being dragged through the madness that was the club she'd been dreaming of for months now. The bullets still whistled through the air, taking down a human or two in their mission to find a vampire's heart. Caroline didn't feel like she was really there, that she was just observing a past event from her own body, a puppet with strings being pulled by the hands of time. Her memories weren't back, she was clueless but she couldn't ask what was happening as her hero grabbed a pair of coats out of the coatroom and helped her into one, knowing instantly that the coat wasn't hers. She had yet to see her rescuer up close, kept catching glimpses of his profile._

_"Where are you taking me, Nik?" were the first words that fell from the blonde's lips, though they were not her chosen words. They were an echo of what had been said in days gone by. The words that Caroline had once said long ago. The gentleman took her hands and led her out a side door that led directly into an alley. It was then that she realized who she talking to. Klaus Mikaelson, the man she'd been talking to only this evening at the ball. The lying bastard! He had told her that he knew little of her past but here he was, rescuing her from an attack, the only memory she had of her past until tonight. If Caroline had had even a little bit of control of her movements right now, she would have slapped him, but in 1927, she had let him led her from the alleyway and quickly down the street._

_He didn't speak for the longest time, obviously not wanting their location broadcast to anyone with cunning ears. Caroline watched the man closely, his worry evident on his face, looking over his shoulder every few seconds back at the club. Sirens wailed through the air as the police were called to the scene. Klaus arrived at a car and opened the door for Caroline, she jumped inside confidently, like she knew the car well and he joined her in the driver's seat seconds later. The car jumped into start and began down the street. From her travels with the Salvatores, Caroline could tell that this was Portsmouth, England. In fact, from the smell of salt and the sea in the air, they were quite close to the port and the naval dockyard._

_"I asked you a question, Niklaus, where are you taking me?" Caroline insisted firmly once they were far away from the club, no idea where they were going. Klaus kept his eyes on the road and didn't look at her. There was an awkward couple of moments in the car, in which Caroline was forced to pose the question once more, to show that she would not allow this question to go unanswered. The car travelled through the dark streets of Portsmouth, but Caroline had no idea where the final destination was._

_"You're going to New York on the next available boat, like we discussed, the Salvatores will look after you until this is all worked out. It's not safe for you to be here anymore, Caroline." Klaus admitted through gritted teeth, like he was angry with her. No, on second thought, it was more like he was angry with himself. Caroline fell back in the seat and sighed, not expecting such a dramatic response._

_"You'll be coming too, right?" She asked quietly. There was silence as Klaus just looked over and gave a heavy look that probably spoke a hundred words that needed more than two memories to make sense. Then, as if that wasn't enough to sink Caroline's heart to the bottom of her stomach, he shook his head once. This response agitated the woman beside him and she shook her head furiously._

_"No, no, no, no! Pull the car over, or I swear to God, I'll jump out." Caroline yelled at him, still shaking her head as if she couldn't believe the cheek of the man right now. Klaus glanced over at her once to make sure she wasn't joking before pulling the car over, in a quiet street. Caroline opened the door and jumped out, beginning away from the car with anger in her motions. Klaus followed her a couple paces behind as she tried to collect herself, tears threatening to spill over._

_"Caroline." He began._

_"No, you promised me that you wouldn't do this to me, you promised!" Caroline turned around and hit Klaus on the shoulder with quite an impressive force for a younger vampire versus an Original. He didn't fight her anger, he obviously warranted it for whatever he was about to do to her, or had done. "Listen to me, I don't care what they threatened, what revenge they seek, I'm staying and there's nothing you can do about it!" She told him confidently, determined to see her words out._

_As she spoke, their eyes stayed locked together in a passive aggressive glare, a clash of wits and choices making a course of action impossible to set out. Klaus was patient and calm, and had been for the entire duration of the memory so far, never looking angry. When Caroline insisted that there was nothing he could do to bend her will to agree with his marching orders, in a lightning fast move, he grabbed her wrists and pulled her close. Caroline tried in vain to tug herself free but his grip tightened around her wrists. It didn't hurt but she hated the notion of being captured by such a conqueror, though his eyes remained softer and matter of fact as he began to speak very deliberately._

_"If you stay, Caroline, then they will kill you. Finn and your mother are dead back there, they died so you might get out of this alive. Throwing their sacrifice away due to your own stubbornness is both an insult to their memories and dangerous for yourself. You need to trust me on this. It'll be a few months, a couple of years at the most." The news of the death made Caroline blanch. This time, she did let tears fall down her cheeks softly, not wanting to sob because she'd never stop if she started._

_When he was done speaking, he let her wrists go free only to take her jaw in both hands. It was a sweet gesture but Caroline sensed a dark undertone, tears flowing down her cheeks as he did so. His thumb came across to wipe away one lone tear as it traced sad patterns down her face. The other hand's fingers played with her hairline, swiping away from stray curls that had gotten loose. "I'm sorry that it has to be this way, love, but I promise that I will find you." He told her. The blonde let out a little whimper._

_Though her head was in his grip, Caroline shook her head, still in defiance of this idea. "Please, please, Klaus, don't do this, I-"Caroline didn't finish her sentence because Klaus's hands twisted and snapped her neck. There was one second where she was still conscious and fell into his arms before everything went absolutely and completely black._

Caroline woke with a gasp. She grabbed at her neck to make sure it was still intact and unbroken and gave herself a couple seconds to wake up. Caroline shifted herself up into a sitting position and became aware of the rain smattering against her window. The curtains blustered wildly with the wind and raindrops coming through the slightly open windows and she pushed the covers back to go and shut the storm out. A drastic change from the summer air she'd stood in with Klaus, she noted in her internal monologue. And of course, that thought brought her back to the man's lies.

She couldn't figure out what to make of the memory, so many more questions buzzed into her head as she leant heavily against the windowsill and tried to wrap her head around this. Right, okay, what were the facts? She thought to herself. Fact number one, Klaus sent her to the Salvatores. This implied that Damon and Stefan had known all along, that they'd lied to her for ninety years about who she was. Fact number two, her mother was dead. Fact number three, Klaus had saved her from the club. In the memory, Caroline had called him three different names, which implied intimacy between them. Caroline wished that she remembered what she was going to say before Klaus snapped her neck but it was just behind the glass wall between her past and her present.

The blonde run her fingers through her hair, still curled from the ball but distressed and laboured from tossing and turning about during her dream. Suddenly she was angry at everything. Half of her wanted to wake the men she called brothers up and call them out on their lying ways. The other half wanted to find Klaus and make him tell her every detail. Why had she needed safekeeping to the point that she had forgotten who she was? Who was this mysterious being who had attacked the club? Why had 'a few years' stretched into almost a century in the dark, waiting to be found?

Caroline hastily pulled on clothes over the bra and underwear she'd fallen asleep in, a pair of jeans and a tank top, along with a black trench coat. Grabbing her keys and making her way down the stairs as quietly as she could without waking the brothers up, who'd retired from their night of drinking. The storm raged on as Caroline rushed out to her car and slipped inside. The engine took a couple moments to wake up in the weather conditions but sparked to life and Caroline began out of the driveway and down the road to find her answers from the man himself.

As she began away from the boarding house, her headlights' failed to find a slim, female figure standing under a black umbrella across from the house. The car passed her, the woman watching the blonde disappearing off on her quest before beginning towards the house, the clear sound of her heels against the driveway dampened by the rain fall.


	6. Chapter 6

**Okay, I won't waste your time with a long speech about where I've been, so here's the basics: I went to Italy, that's why I'm late, I'm sorry, I'm going to try and update once every two weeks from now on. The story hopefully will really pick up after this chapter. **

**Enjoy and don't forget to review and tell me what you think! Any comments, questions, theories? I wanna hear them!**

* * *

As she drove away from the Boarding House and towards the Mikealson Manor, Caroline continued to play the dream over and over in her head. Every little finite detail that she could remember was scrutinized as her body drove the car, her mind focused on decoding everything there was to decode in those few minutes into her past. Everything between her and Klaus was intimate, the way he helped her into her coat and took her hand, the way he glanced at her like it hurt him to know that she would be upset by his words, the way he cupped her jaw and looked her straight in the eye like he knew everything about her. The same way he had looked at her tonight on the balcony.

This was not the behaviours of people who had only known each other a short time. Whatever past Klaus and Caroline had, it was not short. It must have taken years to build up that sort of automatic response between the pair of them. Which obviously left a hundred more questions unanswered and the undeniable truth that Klaus had lied through his teeth to a women he knew would hurt when he was discovered as a liar.

Caroline stopped a way off from the manor, though the building was still in her sight, not wanting them to know that she was coming through the sound of her engine. With the rainfall, they wouldn't hear her footsteps as well. She tapped the steering wheel with her fingers and stared out into the storm. Tears trickled her cheeks. She'd begun to cry on the way over, and she wasn't sure why. She felt betrayed and even emptier than when she hadn't known anything about her past. Typical that she had waited so long for the curtain to be pulled back over her life, and now she almost wanted to take it back and forget again.

Her little car pulled over and the emotions overwhelmed her when Caroline's eyes spotted the little balcony she and Klaus had stood on. Had that just been this evening? One dream later, and Caroline felt like everything he'd told was false, an allusion. Perhaps it was, perhaps it wasn't. Perhaps there was a good reason for it and she had to give him that chance. Perhaps there was no reason and he just was pure evil, playing with her emotions as he pleased.

All the possibilities caused Caroline to rest her forehead against the steering wheel of her car and sobbed for what she'd lost. That moment discussing roses and her bracelet in the night air had been tarnished but what she knew now. She wondered how this was how the cheated and heartbroken felt like when they looked back on old memories. Caroline clutched the steering wheel tightly in both hands as her tears fell onto the steering wheel. It was a couple minutes before she managed to tell herself that, if she was the cheated and the heartbroken, she would get her answers, she would know the whole story. And now was that time.

After straightening up, she wiped her eyes on the sleeves of her shirt and took in a deep breath. No, she had to know. She had to know why he'd promised a few years and waited ninety. Caroline already knew that the answer was bad, what good could come from such a delay? But she'd know, she would know who she used to be and who she was now. Now, she was a loving sister, a good friend and a student, who lived her life right. Her brain nagged at her, reminding her that her 'brothers' lied to her and that she had no real close friends except the aforementioned liars. Her mind also reminded herself that being at least a hundred years old and still in high school was not that great of an achievement, but she silenced it by getting out the car.

Her feet sank slightly into the gravel as she began towards the house, the rain pattering against her face and the wind against her. Her eyes travelled up the balcony she'd stood on hours before, the roses shivering in the wind. The memories of their conversation caused fury to burn in her. He'd lied to her face. Looked her in the eye and lied to her. Vampires were not the most moral of creatures but the entire idea that he'd hidden her past from her when she was trying so hard to uncover it was sickening and made her want to weep again. Did he want to hurt her?

Once she got to the front door and the shelter, she looked windswept and awful. She took a second, a good long second before pressing the doorbell. Part of her thought it was rude to wake the house in the middle of the night. The other part reminded her that this guy had lied to her and he could pay for that in lost hours of sleep. Caroline waited for movement within the house, there were footsteps and grumbles first then the voices started.

"What the hell is that?" First came the voice of Kol Mikealson, grumbling like an old man.

"I think you mean who is that, not what, Kol. Though you raise a good point of who would be calling at this sort of hour?" Elijah told his brother in a corrective, teacher voice. Unlike the moaning Kol, his voice was less angry and bordered closer to curious. But even then, his voice was tired and less smooth than earlier at the ball. Nobody had a particular long fuse when it was closer to six am then 9 pm.

"Can't be anyone important. They wouldn't have knocked if it was urgent." Kol replied, still whining about being woken up. Caroline scoffed. Maybe she shouldn't have knocked. Maybe they deserved the intrusion upon their evenings, she felt intruded upon herself. Kol grumbled for a few more moments about how late it was and the two brothers began a small disagreement over who should be the one to go open the door, or whether they should open the door at all. Caroline was on the edge as it were, but now she was close to walking away. Thankfully, she was saved.

"It's Caroline." Klaus' voice came from the upper levels of the house, whereas the other two brothers were downstairs. Caroline wondered errantly how he could know that it was her when she hadn't even spoken. Did he recognise her scoffing? That would be an achievement. She didn't have time to wonder as the answer came a couple seconds later. "I'd know her scent anywhere." He commented as his voice travelled closer to her and down a level, assumingly he was walking down the stairs to join his brothers.

Kol groaned and Caroline could picture the younger brother roll his eyes. His tone dripped with the echoes of such a gesture. "Here we go, the infamous, all powerful wolf senses. If it's Caroline, then I imagine it's for you and at this hour, I imagine it's not a social call. I'm going back to bed; don't let her beat you up too much, Nik." Kol told his big brother before starting back up the stairs, his voice fading as he did.

"Would you like me to leave?" Elijah asked after Kol had shut his bedroom door. Caroline, by this point, was half leaning on the door to listen to the conversation. The three of them sounded like her and the Salvatores, a proper sibling conversation. The rain was beginning to slow and become a drizzle but drops still speckled her back from the quick and impatient wind that blew the rain under the shelter in gusts. There weren't any words from Klaus but a couple seconds later, Elijah reminded him, "Be patient. She's not used to this." Great, Elijah probably knew Caroline better than she did, she thought to herself as Elijah's footsteps disappeared up the stairs.

And Klaus' came towards the door.

The door opened, and as it swung open, Caroline quickly straightened up and remembered why she'd been there in the first place. She was angry, she was furious even. Klaus was standing there, not in any sort of nightwear. In fact he'd just shed the jacket from his tuxedo and lost the tie, unbuttoned the top couple buttons of his shirt. The blonde swallowed thickly and cursed her wandering eyes as he began to speak.

"Caroline….." He spoke her name in a breath of what sounded like relief. Caroline seemed surprised by this tone in his voice, she didn't know what she had expected from him but the way he'd spoken her name…was like he was happy to see her again. She even saw the hint of a smile play at the top of his lips. "Maybe you should come out of this dreary weather and we can talk inside."

Caroline didn't speak. Instead, she stepped inside the house and looked around the darkened entrance hall. The place changed when it was empty. It looked even more beautiful and the night introduced new beauties to the architecture, what little light remained in the night sky filtered in through the windows. Klaus looked her up and down; she resembled a drowned rat at the moment and she was glad she'd taken her makeup off before sleeping or she would have giant streaks down her face from crying and the weather's interference.

Klaus disappeared for a couple seconds and returned with a towel, already unfurled. For a second, Caroline thought he would wrap it around her, but he paused and simply handed it to her instead with an indescribable look on his face. Caroline thanked him reluctantly and wrapped it around herself to attempt to dry her dripping clothes. Once she was a little less soaked, Klaus, without even speaking a word since she'd walked into the house, gestured for her to follow him into a room she hadn't noticed on her first visit. It was a parlour sort of room, with two sofas facing each other and a grand fireplace. A meek little fire simmered inside it and Klaus gestured for her to take a seat on one of the couches.

"I'd rather stand." She told him firmly, not wanting to let him manipulate the situation to his favour or make him feel like he was in charge. Klaus continued on like he hadn't heard her and added a couple pieces of firewood to the flames. It burst into life at the additions and crackled. He then turned to her and tilted his head. "Do you know why I'm here?" She asked, tilting her head slightly herself and casting her eyes around the room.

"I do." He answered simply, not a hint of guilt or even triumph in his voice. It was a simple answer to a complicated question. Caroline nodded and didn't know what to do. Did she question and interrogate him? Did she just assume the worst and slap him? Did she forget this and walk away with what remaining dignity and happiness she had? Did she just stop being so bloody stubborn and sit down on the sofa? Klaus provided her with an option a couple minutes later.

"I know you would prefer to pace, my love, but if you just indulge me and sit down, I will explain everything to you from the beginning to the end." He promised. The first part about pacing made Caroline's eyebrows arch perfectly above her eyes; she did always prefer to pace when she was agitated or angry, there was a freedom and strength in the movement. How did he know something that intimate and obscure about her personality? Had her personality and little idiosyncrasies carried over with her despite her amnesia? Had she always been like that? All questions aside, whatever Klaus promised her, Caroline had already branded him a liar, and she knew better than to set him up to lie to her again. She just didn't trust him.

Caroline crossed her arms across her chest. "How do I know you're not lying? Or giving me false details? How do I know that you won't just distract me with some useless information and won't explain anything until you have a reason for the conversation to end?" She asked him aggressively, her anger clear in his voice. He looked away from her enraged eyes at the second question and stared into the flames. "Why should I trust a word that comes out of your mouth?" She asked him. Part of her meant it rhetorically; the other part wanted an answer, a reason to believe that this was it and she would finally learn her past. But both sides of her were shocked at the answer that came to Klaus' lips after a long pause.

"Because you saved my life."


	7. Chapter 7

Caroline and Klaus shared a tense moment of silence after his confession; it was potent enough that Caroline fell into the sofa with a heavy plunk, taking in a deep breath and holding the arm of the sofa, her fingernails scratching against the leather tersely. Desperate to know more about her great feat. She had saved his life? What had she done? "How did I save your life?" She asked him quietly, no longer considering that he might be lying.

Klaus smirked and looked over from the fire he'd been poking. "It's a long story." He chuckled knowingly. Caroline bristled in her place, not up for being talked down to. "Fear not. I would spare a single detail of the story." He chuckled knowingly and sat down opposite her. Caroline absentmindedly pawed her hair with the towel she'd been given as he did so, not taking his eyes off her.

"I was born in the 10th century. My siblings and I were turned into-"

"Vampires by your mother. I know the legend of how vampires began….I just didn't realise that you and your brothers were the vampires in question." She insisted, making a mental note to ask what Kol meant by Klaus' 'wolf senses' later. "What does this have to do with me?" She asked. Klaus rest the poker against the wall beside the fireplace and sat on the sofa opposite her, still holding her in his gaze, their eyes meeting.

"I will tell you, from start to finish, but I do ask that you don't interrupt or ask questions until I'm finished. You agree to these terms?" He asked her, eyebrows raised as he spoke. Caroline felt like a student being subjected to a lecture but nodded anyways.

"You were born in England in the early 1500's, I never got an exact date but I believe you were born in what is now considered Dover. Your father and mother moved you from England to France when you were a baby. Your father was a business man, and worked mostly in trade between France and England." Klaus considered each word carefully, eyes traveling around the room but they always return to meet hers to make sure that she was listening and that her reaction wasn't too extreme, not wanting to reveal too much too soon.

Caroline nodded slowly along, her breath tight as all this new information about herself, more than she'd ever known about herself before. She was 500 years old; she had been born in Dover, raised in France. She had a mother and a father who loved her. "You and I met in Provence. And that was completely accidental." He smirked; Caroline could see the memory in his eyes.

_Klaus had come to the Forbes household to talk to one of the maids there, a witch. He'd discovered that she had a lead on Katerina Petrova and had come to attempt to buy the information from her before he ripped it from her throat. But all she'd wanted was a vial of his blood, knowing that vampire blood was healing and could be used to save the people that came to her for healing. She unlike some of her witch sisters made sure not to give away her witch identity and burn. _

_"And you're sure that this information is correct?" Klaus asked, holding the vial in his hand. The girl kept her eyes on the blood and didn't move them as she confirmed that she had spoken to the girl's maid, another witch, recently and that Katerina was in Spain, perhaps moving to England. He relented and handed the blood over. That was when the door opened, and the witch sprang into action, slipping the vial into her apron's pocket and rushed to the newcomer's aid. _

_The newcomer in question was Caroline Forbes, the only child of the Forbes family. Klaus had heard a lot of her beauty and intelligence, far beyond most women of her age and station but hadn't taken the praise seriously until this moment. Why the young lady wasn't already married was beyond him, he commented to himself as the girl walked in, taking in the scene with questioning eyes. _

_"Francesca, why didn't you tell me there was a guest? I would have adjourned my lessons sooner, if I had known." The blonde lady of the house asked, looking her maid straight in the eye before looking over at the gentleman. She spoke as if she were making excuses for her behaviour even though it was Klaus and Francesca who were under suspicion. The entire exchange had come to pass in the dining room of the house without any of the residents knowing the gentleman was present._

_"I was enquiring after an errand I asked Francesca to do for me, some business with your father that I couldn't wait until he recovered to see to." Klaus excused himself and the witch, waving the matter off with a simple lie. Concocting cover stories for supernatural goings on was the man's second nature. William Forbes had been sick all week, as was gossip in the town. "Allow me to introduce myself, Niklaus Mikealson." He sauntered to the girl and took her hand, giving it a kiss to greet the young Miss Forbes. The girl blushed and dipped down slightly. _

_"Caroline Forbes." She offered back. _

_"I know." He smirked before straightening up. "I must be off now; my brothers are expecting me back soon and we have some business to attend to. Please tell your father that my family wish him a speedy recovery. Good Day, Miss Forbes." Klaus gave the lady another kiss before beginning out of the room. He knew the way out, but another maid offered to show him anyway, which he didn't decline. And with that, he left the house and began back to his own residence. _

"That was how we met?" Caroline asked after Klaus had finished his story. She didn't care that she'd broken the rule against speaking before the story was done, but the way Klaus paused made it feel like an interval. A promising start to a greater Act 2. Klaus nodded and assured her that every word was what had truly been said. "And how am I supposed to know that for certain?" She asked once more, her voice tinted with sarcasm.

Klaus was over at her side in a flash and looked her deep in the eyes. "I think you'll remember that what I said was true." He told her softly as his pupils contracted into a pinprick then returned to normal size. Caroline stayed quiet for a few seconds before clutching her head in pain. Her temples thumped heavily and she cried out, asking him what she'd done. "500 years of memories suppressed into the darkest corner of your brain for ninety years, it's going to hurt. That's why I compelled you to remember in your sleep, it hurts less."

"Wait, y-you gave me those dreams? But we only met earlier this evening and my first dream was three months ago!" Caroline insisted, the pain subsiding. As it faded slowly away to a more manageable hurt, the memory that Klaus had just described flickered behind her eyelids. It was all true. Every word. She hit a block, the invisible wall when she tried to remember past that point but this memory was Technicolour and bright and real, she could recall it whenever she wished. Klaus gave her a look.

"Technically, we met in the 1500's and I gave you your first memory back whilst you were in a nightclub with the Salvatores three months ago. You and I shared a dance, and you didn't remember a thing the next morning. A week later, you had the first dream, am I right?" He asked with a smug tone that was all knowing. He knew the answer. Caroline nodded softly.

"Give me the rest of my memories." She insisted.

"If I did that, you could be in pain for a long time. That was a barely three minutes of 500 years, imagine what an hour, a day, a year would feel like?" Caroline winced at the thought of reliving this pain again for a minute, let alone a long stretch of time. Klaus shook his head. "You'll remember in your sleep from now, eventually you'll remember everything." He promised her. Caroline nodded as Klaus stood up and poured them both a glass of brandy. She took hers all in one to soothe the twinging in her temple left behind. Klaus chuckled and filled her up once more.

"What happened after that? How did I turn? How did I save your life?"

"We had a few more encounters before I left Provence, but maybe I should leave those for you to remember yourself…" He trailed off with a half-smile before continuing. "I went in search of Katerina for a few weeks and returned with no fruits to my labour, and went to find Francesca to get some payback. However, another vampire that travelled with us had decided to drain the girl dry for me once Elijah received a letter explaining why I was returning from Spain so quickly. Loyalty can be tricky when it's coupled with incompetence." He explained, sitting beside the girl once more.

"It had of course brought the attention of the vampire hunters. And the vampire hunters were very interesting to your father, so interesting that he became one himself after they left, saying there was nothing to be done. He believed that the vampires were still in the town, but they didn't agree." He explained, Caroline cocked her eyebrows in curiosity. "He was...good." Klaus paused to give Caroline a moment to take that in.

Her father hunted vampires, and she was a vampire. He would probably hate her now, even if she didn't kill people now, there was no knowing what she had done in the past. "So good that my siblings and I decided to dispose of him, we couldn't risk it any further and we'd heard rumours of his discovering that the Original family were in the town. We couldn't have that. It would attract the wrong sort of attention." He explained.

"In the time that I was gone, you'd caught the plague from your father and mother and had been bed ridden. You told me that in retrospect, you thought you wouldn't make it and even your father had begun to lose hope that you and your mother would live but suddenly recovered, almost by magic." He chuckled to himself, an inside joke that Caroline wasn't privy. "In reality, your recovery was down to Francesca, and after her death, the other maids dosing everything that they could make you eat or drink with my blood."

Caroline blinked once in shock at the loyalty shown by this Francesca, vampire blood was valuable and some vampires sold it to humans for high prices if they felt generous. For some reason, this maid had decided to use what precious stocks of the life giving elixir she had to revive the blonde from the edge of death. "Though the blood did wonders, you were still not completely well when I came to kill your father. And your mother was still bed ridden whilst the blood took effect." He looked her in the eye, his pupils shrinking once more.

Caroline knew it was coming but she still dropped the glass in her hand to the floor when the pain hit and the memory came flooding back.

_Caroline was no longer sick but recovery from sickness itself was a mountain to climb itself. She was tired and hungry all the time but could only manage a few hours' sleep at a time and very little food. She was still told to keep off her feet but felt better so only worn another layer when she walked around the house. She had been sitting in the parlour, reading, when the maid alerted that Niklaus Mikealson had come to see the family. She closed her book and stood up. "Lord Mikealson, what brings you here at this hour?" She asked once the gentleman had been shown in. Caroline couldn't help but smile at his presence. _

_"This is not a social visit, Lady Caroline. Though I deeply regret that I am not here for your company, it is an addition to the benefits of being here. I came to talk to your father, is he here?" He explained, tilting his head even though he already knew from the number of beating hearts in the house. _

_Caroline coughed once heavily before answering; Klaus raised his eyebrows slightly with concern for the delicate looking blonde. "He will be back shortly; he was meeting a new business partner in town. Is there anything I can help you with?" She asked him curiously and as brightly as she could be given her state. Klaus went to shake his head no and Caroline saw that, but stopped himself. She waited for him to reply patiently and readjusting the long wrap she'd been given for her walking around the house to keep her warm. _

_"My siblings and I will soon be leaving Provence; I believe we will be journeying to England." He explained. Caroline's face fell when she heard this, not quite believing what she was hearing. _

_"I-I'm sorry to hear that, my Lord. I was most looking forward to you teaching me more about the Equestrian arts" She tried to cover up her true hurt with a polite testimony. Klaus smiled at the memory and stepped forward. "Perhaps you shouldn't come closer, I would not want you to get sick and infect your family." The gentleman let out a throaty chuckle at this and stepped even closer to the blonde despite her warning. _

_"I rarely care for potential contagion." He told her with a smirk. _

_"That would make you very unwise in a household with two sick people." She countered in a matter of fact tone. Klaus almost snorted a laugh and stepped closer still, Caroline knew she should step back or leave the room but she found herself rooted to the spot under his gaze. "Unwise and reckless." She clarified in a small voice. _

_"Then let it be written in stone that that is what I am." He told her sensually, now only maybe a half a metre from her. Caroline pulled her wrap closer to her body and prayed that nobody would walk in and assume the worse of her and the compromising position. "Reckless and unwise." He spoke the words with a smile in his voice before sweeping forward and claiming her lips in a kiss. Caroline wasn't strong enough to fight him but found the strength to kiss her back. _

_"You've most probably sealed your fate now." She told him breathlessly when he reluctantly released her from his grip, stepping back only slightly to give her some space to breathe. The Lord laughed once more. _

_"I wager that I will remain healthy as a horse for all time." He told her. _

_"If that horse has caught the plague, then yes." She replied with a giggle of her own. That was when she heard the front door to the house open and footsteps. A pair of footsteps. Klaus turned to investigate the sound and Caroline took the chance to step back to a respectable distance, pulling her wrap closer to her body and hoping nobody would question it. No one ever did. Everything went at double speed from the moment the door opened. It was just a blur of action with voices mixed in. _

_Caroline's father entered with another man, who was brandishing a stake, just like the one that her father spent his time whittling and shaving down to perfection. The newcomer went straight for Klaus and Caroline was being ordered out of the room, her father commenting that ladies shouldn't bear witness to what was about to happen. "What? Papa, what are you doing? " She asked frantically as a maid tried to escort her out. _

_"Leave, Caroline." Klaus told her. He was now being held against the wall by the man, aiming the stake at his chest but waiting. It seemed like he was savouring the moment. The maid urged that Caroline come with it, pulling on her arm. Caroline shrugged her off and began towards the pair even though her father ordered her out. "Go, Caroline." He insisted. _

_"What is happening?" She asked in a near shout. "Let him go! What kind of scandal are you trying to cause?" Caroline shouted at the man. _

_"Put away the claws, kitten, I'm doing what's right." He shouted at her. "Now, keep that mouth shut or I'll shut it myself." With that, the man was across the room, pushed by Klaus. The man broke one of the dressers in the process and Caroline gasped in shock. That was inhuman strength that Caroline had never seen before. A small fight ensured but Caroline didn't see most of it through her tears but soon Klaus was pinned again. "Sure hate to stake you in front of your lady friend, but 500 years and all." He told him, readjusting his hold on the stake before going to plunge it in Klaus' heart. _

_"Klaus, go!" Caroline didn't think before moving but before the stake could get to its target, it found a new target in Caroline's chest. It didn't get her heart but for a weak, brittle human, a wooden stake sitting between your lungs was never a good omen. The girl stared the man in the eyes with courage and fire even though they stung with tears of pain. Klaus was no longer there, she'd provided a distraction for the vampire attempting to take his life. Caroline's father shouted out her name but she just crumpled to the ground, a dying woman. _

_She heard Klaus' attacker shout in rage and a sickening crack. Soon the man was standing over her with evil eyes, staring down at her. "I will end this family for your actions, girl. End it! Their blood is on your hands, meddling child…" He told her carefully, leaning down to pluck the stake out of her chest at an agonizingly slow speed so she felt each movement. She screamed and writhed at the torture, and her moving only made it worse. _

_Like a bottle of wine that had been unstopped, Caroline was losing blood at a terrifying rate as the gentleman wiped the stake on her dress before straightening up once more. As the nameless intruder disappear at a whispering speed, Caroline managed to turn her head to the left. Her father's body lay numb and limp on the floor and the girl used some of her last moments to sob, more tears leaking from her eyes. Through the sound of blood pumping in her ears, she heard a commotion upstairs and the maid waiting on her mother rushing down the stairs, screaming 'murder' in French as she did. _

_Caroline closed her eyes and her breathing became very heavy and hard. _

_And her last thought was that she hoped Klaus and his family were safe. Or what she'd imagined to be her last thought. _


	8. Chapter 8

**It's short, but it's a lead up to a long chapter, I promise you!**

**Enjoy and leave a review!**

* * *

_A few hours passed in the Forbes household, during which the authorities had found the bodies of the family and moved them all to a more respectable location. Whilst her father and mother were laid side by side on their bed, both with a snapped neck, Caroline was moved back to her bed until it could be decided what to do with the bodies. The Forbes family had no relatives in France, and only a few back in England. The blonde was pale; her wound gaping in her chest though the bleeding had stopped due to her lack of a pulse or heartbeat pumping blood around her body. Her hair was strewn along her face and her face was fallen to the side, her eyes closed. _

_In the dead of the night, the blonde suddenly gasped awake. _

_She sat bolt upright and looked down at her body, her wound was closed and completely healed though her dress was still ripped, dried blood all over the fabric. Caroline began to breathe heavily as she tried to make some sense of what was happening to her. She ran her fingers through her hair and looked herself over once more. Her throat was dry and aching with thirst and she could smell something in the air that could quench it. _

_Caroline looked over to the side table by her bed where a little vial of red liquid was sitting, her medicine from when she had been sick. Without thinking, she reached over and snatched it up, holding it up to the light of the candle that had been left on the bedside table. She'd never got a real look at it, but it was a thick, crimson liquid that swirled around the vial when she turned it over with a strange movement and allure. Tentatively, she pulled the stopper off the vial and took a deep inhale of the scent that it produced. _

_It was enticing, but not as enticing as the second scent in the air, wafting around the house. Caroline swallowed the dry lump in her throat and pressed the tip of her finger to the top of the vial where a few drops had clung to the neck of the glass bottle. When her skin had caught a drop, she reluctantly and hesitantly pressed her fingertip onto her tongue and let that single drop flood her senses. To her shame, it tasted like the most delicious ambrosia that could ever exist. _

_In defiance to what she was doing, her body threw the vial against the wall without her mind's consent, causing a red splatter against the stone walls and high pitch shattering sound to radiate through the air. Her ears picked up on footsteps approaching the door, their owners obviously having heard the sound. Caroline automatically lay back down and closed her eyes, holding her breath and finding it strangely comfortable. A couple seconds later, the door opened._

_"How curious…it seems that noise we heard was glass shattering, my lord." _

_"Indeed….you said they'd all had contact?" _

_ "Yes, all of them have been in contact with vampires. But I believe Miss Forbes is most at risk." The first voice muttered disdainfully. Caroline tried not to react, just play dead until they left her alone again. The sound of glass crunching under shoes came through the air and with her heightened hearing made her want to wince, but she suppressed the urge. There were two men, Caroline could hear their heartbeats, and the smell had become more potent and alluring. _

_But there was a third pair of footsteps. Feet without a heartbeat, without that seductive and enticing smell that made Caroline's throat burn._

_"Well, my lord, they need to be cleansed before the bodies are buried, if we are ever to defeat the epidemic." A female voice Caroline didn't recognise floated through the skin, coming from Caroline's right hand side. Fingers moved towards the gap in Caroline's dress where the stake had cut through the fabric and her skin and pushed it aside to find no wound. "I thought you said that she'd been stabbed through the chest, my lord?" The female asked in a crisp English accent. _

_"I did, Lady Petrova…" A second man replied, walking over and inspecting Caroline for himself. Caroline had to keep reminding herself not to breathe, or move, or react to anything. "That is strange…strange indeed…what do you say, My Lord?" _

_"It's a sign, she's been infected by the vampires. We should put her out of her misery before she wakes up and becomes a monster. We owe it to her father and what he stood for." The first man insisted, and Caroline fought the instant reaction of whimpering in fear. Had she'd opened her eyes; she would have seen the man pulling a stake from a bag of equipment. She felt the second man move Caroline's limp body so she was lying completely on her back and her face faced the ceiling. _

_It wasn't until she felt the tip of the stake that she jumped into action. Her hand grabbed the man's wrist and crushed it under her new found strength , her eyes opening. The woman had already disappeared into the corners of the room in fear as Caroline pushed the man off her onto the wall she'd thrown the vial aside and pushed herself off the bed. The first man fell unconscious at the impact and Caroline would have rushed to his aid, her nature still soft and kind even in the light of events, when a commotion behind her caught her attention. _

_The second man screamed and the smell became even stronger as his blood fell to the floor, Caroline turned around to see the horror. The woman, a brunette with curls, had given up whatever charade she'd been playing and had sunk her teeth until the man's throat, drinking from his jugular vein. A few seconds later, she dropped the body to the floor and looked at the blonde. "Well, this was fun but I had to check that the rumours were true. I simply must dash now. Why don't you finish my leftovers?" The brunette told her with a cocky tone as she pulled the man's handkerchief from his breast pocket and wiped her mouth on it. "I have a boat to Italy to make. Ciao." She called before she was gone in a flash. _

_Caroline was now alone with the bleeding, dying man, the blonde dashed over to his side and cradled his body in her arms. Her human side wanted to call for help and stay with him, but her new feral side wanted to copy the brunette's actions and dig her teeth into the man's throat. Her hands were covered in the gentleman's blood as his breath became laboured and fast and then faltered. He was dead. Caroline closed his eyes and then looked at her hands, bloody and red. That's where the smell had been coming from; Caroline was thirsting for human blood. _

_And once again, to her shame, she closed her lips against his open throat and drank._

_It was a few seconds of pure euphoria, before the fear and realisation kicked in._

_What had she just done?_

_What kind of monster was she?_

_She pushed the man's drained body off her and wrapped her arms around herself, sob breaking through the air as she cried. What was happening to her? Was she a vampire now? Those men had certainly thought so; they'd tried to kill her with a stake like her father had been doing with vampire before she'd gotten him killed. Oh, god. The image of her father with his neck twisted and his eyes blank flashed through her head and Caroline sobbed a little more. _

_Eventually the man the brunette had knocked out came around and began to call for help, but Caroline silenced him by snapping his neck, which only caused her mental breakdown to spiral even further out of control. A couple minutes after that, she heard footsteps entering the house and up the stairs. "Caroline?" A voice she recognised. She swallowed a sob and tried to pull herself up from the floor but only slipped further into her mess of petticoats and tears. The door was wide open when Klaus came into the doorway and took the girl in. _

_"T-They are both dead." She told him before looking up at him. "What is happening to me?" She asked him, their eyes meeting for the first time. Their eye contact lasted a few seconds before Klaus looked around the room, taking in every minor detail. The bloody man on the floor and the second man with a snapped neck slumped against the wall. _

_Caroline's bloody hands and clothes, the way she looked at her hands in complete disgust. The shattered remains of the vial against the wall and floor. He walked into the room and clasped his hands around her upper arms and helping her to her feet, she stumbled around like a baby deer, trying to make sense of the situation. Her breath was just sucking out of the air, just to deliver it back in. She was pale as the sheets she'd been laid on dead minutes before._

_ Just as he opened his mouth to speak, another gasp filled the air. _


End file.
